Standup bass player inspires outstandingly

The eight musicians surrounding Rufus Reid and his upright bass were concentrating hard to get every nuance just right.

You could tell that by the look on drummer Larry Luttinger's face as he awaited a point of the hand from Reid to bring in his beats on exactly the right measure to please the bass player, and by the manner in which vocalist Cookie Cooghan closely followed the sheet music in front of her to make sure every note she sang in the sound-not-word style called vocalese was perfect.

The Central New York Jazz Orchestra nonet gave Reid's jazz composition "Linear Surroundings" a classical performance Friday night in Mulroy Civic Center's Carrier Theater.

And the Central New York musicians Mike Dubaniewicz on tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, John Jeanneret on tenor saxophone, Jeff Stockham on French horn and trumpet, Dave Blask on trumpet, Kate Wilkinson on cello and John Stech on piano, as well as Luttinger and Cooghan obviously struck all the right moods during the 40-minute piece written by the guest artist for the evening: Reid, a world-famous educator, musician and composer.

"Thank you," Reid said to the standing crowd applauding them all. "One rehearsal. It looks easy, but it's not. To put something like this together requires great musicianship."

That's because Reid wove an intricate mosaic with the four movements of the suite. Titled "Shadow Chasing," "Moods," "The Peaceful Flame" and "Collage," they drew the best work out of the musicians, fast and slow, loud and soft, all quite lovely down to the compelling, crashing piano cacophony from Stech in the final movement.

Reid has shared the stage with many of America's top band leaders, including Benny Golson, Thad Jones, Slide Hampton and Jimmy Heath.

During the first half of the concert, he showed that he learned well how to be the center of the world of music. His finger work on the upright bass was hypnotic at times as he led Dubaniewicz, Stockham, Stech and Luttinger through a hearty set of his compositions for quintet.

After the swinging opening number, "Come Out and Play," Reid appeared breathless as he said hello to the jazz-loving crowd.

"That's how you feel when you come off our playground," Reid said, wiping his brow. "That's what us musicians play on. The harmonic playground."

An added bonus "This is not on your program, but I'm going to play it anyway," Reid announced toward the end of the first set was his intricate solo turn on Duke Ellington's classic "Sophisticated Lady."

Yes, it's possible to make an upright bass sing in glorious harmony with those notes down on the page.

"I sure wish I had written that," Reid said right afterward.

He did write the next one, "The Meddler," for his son, whose friends somehow got things right when they intruded upon his life to talk him into going out with the woman whom he made his wife.

And the sax of Dubaniewicz and trumpet of Stockham sounded very much like busybodies who really do know what they're talking about.

Mark Bialczak can be reached at mbialczak@syracuse.com or 470-2175. His blog "Listen Up" is at http://blog.syracuse.com/listenup/.

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